This audio extract is from Hugh Miller's autobiographical book, 'My Schools and Schoolmasters', first published in 1854. It is read here by Norman Newton.

'Finding at the head of the loch that no horse and cart had ever forced their way along its sides, we had to hire a boat for the transport of at least cart and baggage; and when the boatmen were getting ready for the voyage, which was, with the characteristic dilatoriness of the district, a work of hours, we baited at the clachan of Kinlochewe - a humble Highland inn, like that in which we had passed the night. The name - that of an old farm which stretches out along the 'head' or upper end of the Loch Maree - has a remarkable etymology: it means simply the 'head' of Loch Ewe - the salt-water loch into which the waters of Loch Maree empty themselves by a river little more than a mile in length, and whose present 'head' is some sixteen or twenty miles distant from the farm which bears its name. Ere that last elevation of the land, however, to which our country owes the level marginal strip that stretches between the present coast-line and the ancient one, the sea must have found its way to the old farm. Loch Maree (Mary's Loch), a name evidently of mediaeval origin, would then have existed as a prolongation of the marine Loch Ewe, and 'Kinlochewe' would have actually been what the compound words signify - the head of Loch Ewe.'

Born and brought up in Cromarty, Hugh Miller was apprenticed as a stone mason at the age of 16, a career he followed for the next 17 years. He developed an interest in fossils and explored the landscapes of the Black Isle, reading widely and eventually becoming one of the best-known exponents of the new sciences of palaeontology and geology. He also wrote occasional articles for the 'Inverness Courier'.

Hugh became deeply involved in church politics and was the leading journalist of the Disruption, editing 'The Witness' from 1835 until his death. He shot himself at his home in Portobello in 1859 in controversial circumstances which included possible brain disease, exhaustion, depression and perhaps an inability to reconcile his science with his theology.

Hugh Miller's Cottage in Cromarty, in which he was born, is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland and contains a museum of his life and work.

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'My Schools and Schoolmasters' (3)

ROSS: Cromarty

2000s

audio; literary landscapes

Am Baile

Literary Landscapes: Hugh Miller

This audio extract is from Hugh Miller's autobiographical book, 'My Schools and Schoolmasters', first published in 1854. It is read here by Norman Newton.<br />
<br />
'Finding at the head of the loch that no horse and cart had ever forced their way along its sides, we had to hire a boat for the transport of at least cart and baggage; and when the boatmen were getting ready for the voyage, which was, with the characteristic dilatoriness of the district, a work of hours, we baited at the clachan of Kinlochewe - a humble Highland inn, like that in which we had passed the night. The name - that of an old farm which stretches out along the 'head' or upper end of the Loch Maree - has a remarkable etymology: it means simply the 'head' of Loch Ewe - the salt-water loch into which the waters of Loch Maree empty themselves by a river little more than a mile in length, and whose present 'head' is some sixteen or twenty miles distant from the farm which bears its name. Ere that last elevation of the land, however, to which our country owes the level marginal strip that stretches between the present coast-line and the ancient one, the sea must have found its way to the old farm. Loch Maree (Mary's Loch), a name evidently of mediaeval origin, would then have existed as a prolongation of the marine Loch Ewe, and 'Kinlochewe' would have actually been what the compound words signify - the head of Loch Ewe.'<br />
<br />
Born and brought up in Cromarty, Hugh Miller was apprenticed as a stone mason at the age of 16, a career he followed for the next 17 years. He developed an interest in fossils and explored the landscapes of the Black Isle, reading widely and eventually becoming one of the best-known exponents of the new sciences of palaeontology and geology. He also wrote occasional articles for the 'Inverness Courier'. <br />
<br />
Hugh became deeply involved in church politics and was the leading journalist of the Disruption, editing 'The Witness' from 1835 until his death. He shot himself at his home in Portobello in 1859 in controversial circumstances which included possible brain disease, exhaustion, depression and perhaps an inability to reconcile his science with his theology. <br />
<br />
Hugh Miller's Cottage in Cromarty, in which he was born, is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland and contains a museum of his life and work.